28 Pumpkin Decorating Projects

Color Block Pumpkins

Here's an easy way to create a striking display that works especially well with smaller pumpkins. Just put an inch of crafts paint in the bottom of a paper bowl, and mix in a little water until the paint is fluid but not watery. Dip the pumpkin and gently rotate. Set your pumpkins on waxed paper to dry.

Geometric Painted Pumpkin

You'll just need crafts paint, a bowl and electrical tape to create this striking mod pumpkin. Trace the circle with a bowl and use electrical tape to block out the stripes (the tape works well around the curves of a pumpkin). Paint in fun colors.

Decoupage Pumpkins

Tissue paper cutouts create a colorful stained-glass effect on pumpkins. Start with a white pumpkin (either real or faux). Cut a variety of large geometric shapes from tissue paper in the colors of your choice. Paint the pumpkin with a 2:1 blend of Mod Podge (or a similar product) and water, then apply tissue paper shapes so they are close but do not overlap.

Butterfly Shimmer Pumpkins

These pumpkins look striking individually or as a glam grouping. Apply black, white or gold craft paint to create a solid base, then use a paint brush to apply contrasting metallic paint. Attach faux butterflies with hot glue.

Spooky String

Jazz up painted pumpkins using crafts nails and string for a spooky spiderweb effect.

Patterned Pumpkins

Painted geometric patterns and a gold stem create eye-catching pumpkins.

Start with a white faux pumpkin or by painting your pumpkin white. Then, apply stripes of acrylic paint in black, tangerine, blue, lime, purple and orange. Gold metallic fabric paint with a painting tip can be used to outline bands and add fine lines and dots. One-step liquid gold-leaf paint turns the stem into a sparkling crown.

DIY Pumpkin Scene

Cut an oval shape in a faux pumpkin and decorate away with objects from your home or crafts store! You can make your scene scary or cute or maybe a little bit of both.

Succulent Pumpkin Display

Top a pumpkin with sphagnum moss and an assortment of succulents for a striking, long-lasting display.

Corn Husk Covers

For clever pumpkin art, attach slightly damp corn-husk strips at the stem and base of pumpkins with clear-drying gel glue. Buy packs of dried corn husks (used to make tamales) in the international foods section of a grocery store or at Walmart for this fall decorating idea.

Owl Pumpkin

This adorable owl pumpkin will brings smiles to your friends and family.

You can either use a real or faux pumpkin for this project, but the easiest will be a white faux pumpkin. Use yellow, black and orange acrylic paint to create the eyes and nose, and draw on the eyebrows with brown permanent marker. For the wings, cut out two wing shapes from stiff black felt, and hot-glue overlapping layers of feathers, working from the bottom to the top. Pin the wings to the pumpkin.

Spooky Bat Pumpkins

Painted bats (or bats cut from black construction paper) look spooky on your doorstep or inside.

Posh Pumpkins

A black-and-white color scheme gives any decorating project a bold, sophisticated look that pops against fall's bright oranges. Group decorated pumpkins with a vase of winterberry as an accent.

Setting the Season

Vibrant dahlias in carved-out mini pumpkins delight at place settings. (We used a candle carver—a small tool that removes candle-size chunks from fruits and veggies.) Insert a votive holder as the "vase" for water and blooms. For the centerpiece, a row of cake stands raises pumpkins decorated with tisue-paper leaf silhouettes.

Bittersweet-and-White Centerpiece

White pumpkins encircled by bittersweet vine and set along an orange table runner create a striking fall centerpiece.

Dotted Pumpkins

Whimsical dots create a two-tone or multicolor design with season-long appeal.

Use a plunger-type apple corer to punch out circles from an assortment of pumpkins and winter squash. Tapping the plunger with a rubber mallet helps push the corer through tough pumpkin shells. Then re-insert the circles in contrasting-color pumpkins. Mix and match the circles from different pumpkins to create polka-dot patterns, or discard circles to let light glow through your design.

Creepy Mantel

We can't resist a little skin-crawling fun! Plastic spiders wander over pumpkins draped in ripped cheesecloth. "Hairy" cording feels a bit like a spider's trail on another. Add a faux crow, and you've set the proper spooky mood for Halloween.

Leafy Look

For this easy fall craft, glue your favorite leaves (either real dried leaves or leaves from a crafts store) on pumpkins in a variety of patterns.

Keyed Pumpkins

Use antique keys (secured with long straight pins) to create seasonal messages, such as fall or eek, on your pumpkins for an easy DIY fall decoration.

Midwest-Theme Stencil Pumpkins

Cast a distinctly regional spell on your Halloween pumpkins with designs that represent some of our favorite Midwest icons.

Our online collection includes the barn, maple leaf and lighthouse pictured, plus stencils of a log cabin, ear of corn, deer, eagle, pinecone, sunflower and wheat. Use a combination of cutouts and etchings for your designs. Download free patterns.

Trick or Treat Pumpkins

Create a striking pumpkin grouping with traditional orange or white pumpkins and black paint.

Use masking tape to create desired patterns (cover areas you want to remain the pumpkin color). Spray-paint pumpkins black; remove tape to reveal design. Paint your favorite Halloween sayings between stripes. Create dots in black-painted areas by drilling holes with a cup drill bit.

Pumpkin Panache

Go all-out for a party with imaginative displays of pumpkin-inspired fall decorations.

Festive Autumn Lantern

A Cinderella pumpkin transforms easily into a water-filled bowl with floating candles for a festive lantern.

Twinkly Pumpkins

Twinkly lights illuminate three perfect pumpkins: white Lumina, pale orange Long Island Cheese and silvery Jarrahdale. Cut holes snug around the lights and use a strand of 50 LED lights for the best glow.

Flower Power

Summer still blooms when you translate flower motifs to fall pumpkins.

For this easy fall craft use an apple corer to cut flower centers, and carve petal designs with a triangle clay loop tool, available at some crafts stores or through pottery supply stores online. Swap flower centers among different-color pumpkins for whimsical contrast.

Patchwork-and-Paint Display

Set a seasonal scene on your porch or patio using our patchwork and paint techniques to create a beautiful grouping of pumpkins. Add flowers, fall leaves, small pumpkins and fresh vegetables to embellish your inspiring display.

Tabletop 'Mumkins'

Combine two fall favorites by turning a pumpkin into a bursting-with-mums flower arrangement in this DIY fall craft.

Begin carving as you would with a jack-o-lantern. Carefully cut a lid (keep the stem!) and remove the seeds and pulp. Using a drill or nail, poke small holes around the shell, just wide enough to insert flower stems. Select mums in oranges, reds and golds. Cut the stems about a half inch from the flower head, long enough to poke into the hole. Space holes so adjoining flowers cover the pumpkin flesh. Start at the top, and work your way down until the pumpkin is covered.

The number of mums you need depends on the sizes of the blooms and your pumpkin. Keep the inside of the pumpkin moist; flowers will last two or three days.

Fall Display

An assortment of cattails, leaves, seasonal berries and orange tulips creates a memorable fall display for a sideboard or table centerpiece. Posing the cornucopia in pretty white Lumina pumpkins adds a sophisticated surprise.

Glittery-White Pumpkins

Glittery white pumpkins and shiny black pedestals make a sophisticated autumn display. Spray-paint foam pumpkins white, adding textural touches such as glitter or sparkly white ribbon. Arrange on and around an assortment of black-painted pedestals; we used candleholders and a cake stand.